Eating & Drinking inLondon

The English capital’s population may fall shy of the 10 million required for megacity status, but London’s vibrant, dynamic restaurant scene places it firmly alongside - if not above - many of the world’s greatest.

But the city is about approachable prices too, even in the high-rent central zones. In Soho, you can find easy-on-the-pocket eateries including Mexican Breddos, hand-made pasta at Pastaio, and good-value sushi at Jugemu.

Away from the thrum of the centre, hip businesses are pushing out into less gentrified neighborhoods. Tom Brown’s extraordinary Cornerstonein Hackney Wick and the brilliant Westerns Laundry in the hinterland between Highbury, Islington and Holloway are among the most talked-about new places to eat. They join latest sensations Bratand St Leonards in the more established Shoreditch.

But it is only when you venture further afield, for example to tiny Kuduon a gritty stretch of Peckham’s Queens Road, or to vegetarian Ceremonyin Tufnell Park that you realise London’s culinary coming-of-age is a citywide phenomenon.